What was the economy of the South during the Civil War?
Posted by admin in Finance Monday, 12 September 2011 02:21 4 Comments
How did the people make a living? What did they need for this type of economy?
What was the economy of the North? How did they make a living? Waht did they need for this type of economy?
South was farming, no joke slavery played a huge role in this, free labor for farm owners.
Not too sure about the north, probably more industrious.
The south had plantations which needed slaves.
The north had factories which required a lot of manual labor.
The South depended on their slave labor for their money-making crops, the number one being cotton. Slaves also took care of all of the main plantation work. The North was more richer in their industry and were better equipped and prepared during the Civil War.
The southern economy was almost entirely agricultural. The other answers mistakenly cite slavery as being of overriding importance. Only a very tiny portion of the population were slave-owners. They had a disproportionate share of the wealth, it’s true, but not a majority of the economy. And the idea of “free labor” is ludicrous. A slave then cost as much as a new car now, or more, when adjusted for the worth of the dollar at the time, and slaves had to be fed and cared for.
The northern economy was more industrialized, but still agriculture occupied a much, much greater portion of the population than in modern times.
Agriculture in the southern states, though, included not only foodstuffs but also a large amount of cash crops, especially cotton. That made it somewhat different from northern agriculture.